HEDS modellers become first non-US contributors to an ICER review

Dr Praveen Thokala

Dr Praveen Thokala and Professor Matt Stevenson recently provided economic modelling expertise for an Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) assessment on spinal muscular atrophy.  ICER, which was founded in 2006, is a not-for-profit organisation that evaluates the clinical and economic value of prescription drugs, medical tests and other health care delivery systems and effectively acts as an independent “watchdog” on drug pricing in the USA.

Professor Matt Stevenson

Each completed ICER assessment establishes a “value-based price benchmark” recommending  an optimal price point to reflect its long term outcomes for patients.  These recommendations are increasingly used to inform decisions by health insurance companies in the USA as well as Medicare in New York state and    retail pharmacist CVS, and have also been used by drug makers to help determine launch prices or the degree of discounts that will be offered.

ICER conducts its own in-house assessment of the clinical effectiveness of new drugs but commissions universities to create models of cost-effectiveness on which its price recommendations are based.  ScHARR is the first non-US institution to be commissioned to do this work.

The report, which assesses the comparative clinical effectiveness of Spinraza and Zolgensma in the treatment if SMA, is available (along with slides from Prof. Stevenson’s presentation) at: https://icer-review.org/topic/sma.